Safaricom and Visa launch M-Pesa Global Pay Visa Virtual Card

Safaricom and Visa launch M-Pesa Global Pay Visa Virtual Card Safaricom has entered an agreement with Visa to form M-Pesa GlobalPay Visa Virtual card which will see the mobile phone-based money transfer service transact in 200 countries. This will allow customers to transact up to Sh150,000 ($1,28370) per payment and Sh300,000 ($2,567.3) per day. The deal is expected to shore Safaricom’s earnings from the mobile money services at a time M-Pesa revenues have been growing steadily. “By partnering with Visa to provide the M-Pesa GlobalPay Visa virtual card, we are…

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Samsung partners with Safaricom and M-kopa

Samsung

Technology firm Samsung has partnered with Safaricom and M-Kopa to roll out a Pay-As-You-Go mobile phone solution in Kenya. This initiative is described as a world first mobile security solution enabling carriers, financial partners and retailers running installment plans to remotely manage Samsung devices. The initiative will leverage the benefits of Safaricom’s fast 4G data network and service in Kenya. Essentially, the pay-as-you-go initiative will enable carriers and dealers to expand their current customer base with lower upfront fees and interest rates. It offers customers the opportunity to access a…

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Global payments firm Adyen partners with Cellulant to onboard M-PESA on Netflix, eBay, Airbnb, Facebook

Cellulant has announced a partnership with Adyen – a global payment company, further increasing Adyen’s capability to offer its global merchants access to key local payment methods in major African markets. The deal will see Ayden, which replaced PayPal on eBay, bring mobile money platforms such as M-PESA, Airtel Money, Equitel, Tigo Pesa and MTN Mobile Money, as well as several online and mobile banking payment methods to eBay, Facebook, Airbnb, Spotify, Uber and Netflix. Adyen will have access to 40 mobile money operators, over 600 local & international merchants and over 120 banks in…

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Vodacom and Safaricom in a bid to buy M-Pesa brand from parent company Vodafone

Vodacom

Vodacom and Safaricom are in the process of buying the M-Pesa brand from parent company Vodafone, in a deal reportedly worth over R190 million. Vodacom mentioned the deal in its recent full year results announcement, saying it expected the acquisition of the popular mobile money service to “further accelerate our mobile money growth plans in Africa”. Vodacom group CEO Shameel Joosub confirmed the plans in an interview with ITWeb, saying Vodacom, through a joint agreement with Safaricom, has done a deal with Vodafone to “take over M-Pesa completely”. “So, Safaricom…

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Mobile Commerce enabler DOCOMO Partners with Safaricom to Launch first App Store Integration with M-PESA.

M-Gas Mpesa Central Bank of Kenya

Global mobile commerce enabler, DOCOMO Digital has partnered with Safaricom to give customers the option to pay for content on the Google Play Store using M-PESA. The integration, which is powered by DOCOMO Digital’s mobile commerce enabling platform using Google Play’s payment API, allows M-PESA customers to use the mobile money service to pay for goods and services from the app store. The service is available to more than 27 million M-PESA customers in Kenya with an Android smartphone or tablet. From today, customers matching this criteria can purchase content…

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Safaricom simplifies M-PESA access to businesses

Kenya is an undisputed global leader when it comes to mobile money services. In 2007, the telecom operator Safaricom launched its mobile money service M-Pesa as a simple way to text small payments between users. A decade later, M-Pesa has become the world’s most successful money transfer service. Safaricom, a major Mobile service provider in Kenya has announced a release of a feature-rich M-PESA Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) portal to businesses in the country.  Dubbed Daraja, the portal will enable businesses to easily integrate with the platform drastically cutting down…

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Vodacom Will Discontinue M-Pesa South Africa From 30th June

Vodacom

  Earlier in the year, Vodacom said that it was reviewing M-Pesa South Africa. The service that was launched in 2010 and re-launched four years later, was expected to have millions of users but it only garnered 76,000 active users. Shameel Joosub, CEO, said in a statement that the decision was based on the fact that the business sustainability of M-Pesa is predicted on achieving a critical mass of users. Their revised projections and the high level of financial inclusion in South Africa meant that there was little prospects of…

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Disrupting mobile banking in Kenya; Equity Bank joins the list

EQUITY Bank, whose micro-loans offerings have helped increase the number of Kenyans using formal financial services, is looking to break into Kenya’s booming mobile telecoms market. The bank says it will use the Mobile Virtual Network Operator licence it was granted in April to make financial services even more accessible and affordable. Kenyans transacted more than US$20 billion through their mobile phones in 2013, and Kenya leads the world in its adoption of mobile payments. Equity is looking to tap into this booming market by employing innovative Taiwanese-made ultra-slim “subscriber…

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